Version Control for MS Access: Using the MSAccess-VCS Add-in

[KitaYama]

Maybe it gives you a better idea of the situation to investigate.

PowerShell's response to :

[System.Text.Encoding]::Default

 

[KitaYama]

Some insights from our IT:

Even though two PCs have the same code page set to 932 (Japanese, Shift-JIS), the font used in VBA's Immediate window or text controls might be different depending on:

1. Windows display language and regional settings
   This affects the default UI font, and possibly the font fallback behavior for Unicode characters.
2. Installed fonts and font substitutions
   On a PC one might be using a font like MS Gothic, Yu Gothic, or Meiryo, which tend to render … as midline dots.
   On another system, even with CodePage 932 set, Windows might still prefer something like Segoe UI, Arial, or Tahoma, which can render … differently — often bottom-aligned like periods.
3. Font fallback/resolution behavior in legacy apps
   VBA and many older apps use GDI-based rendering, which is sensitive to locale settings and doesn't always treat Unicode consistently across locales.

Unicode is Universal.
Fonts Are Not​

• ChrW(8230) means “horizontal ellipsis”, and that's universal.
• But what font is used to draw it, and how that font's glyph looks, is not universal.

additional info:
I changed my VBE font to "Segoe UI Black (Western)"

Now it's what I have:

IF I change VBE's font to my previous situation (Meiryo UI (Japanese)), I have the same three dots middle line aligned

I assume the developer may want to only add three dots to be sure no error occurs in different situations.

 

[sonic8]

Not that it's that important, but ChrW(8230) is middle aligned, while dot is bottom aligned.
I really don't know which one is correct.

The VBA environment is not suitable to display Unicode characters, which are not included in your current character set (ANSI codepage). - From your original problem with the three-dot-character we know that it is not included in your codepage.

Shouldn't Unicode look the same everywhere?

Not exactly. The core characteristics should be the same but the exact visual appearance depends on the font used to display the characters. However this should not be the problem here, as explained above.

 

[KitaYama]

but the exact visual appearance depends on the font used to display the characters.

That's the exact thing our IT explained. (#22)
Thanks for confirming.

 

[AHeyne]

Thats what ChatGPT says about:

1.​

In Western writing systems (like Latin), punctuation marks such as the ellipsis are typically aligned to the baseline, meaning they appear at the bottom of the text line.


In Japanese typography, especially with proportional or monospaced CJK fonts, punctuation like the horizontal ellipsis is usually centered vertically within the character’s square space. This ensures proper rendering in both horizontal and vertical writing modes, which are common in Japanese texts.


As a result, the ellipsis appears higher compared to how it’s positioned in Western fonts — but that’s actually the typographically correct placement in CJK contexts.

---

2.​

The encoding (like Shift-JIS) only determines which Unicode code point a sequence of bytes refers to. It does not define how the character looks on screen.


Instead, the font you’re using is what controls the visual appearance of the character.


CJK fonts such as MS Gothic, MS Mincho, Meiryo, or Yu Gothic are specifically designed for Japanese text. These fonts render U+2026 (horizontal ellipsis) so that it appears vertically centered, which matches Japanese typographic conventions.

 

[Josef P.]

Thanks for doing the research.

I now have a guess as to why the horizontal ellipsis is used instead of the three dots.
These are not displayed in the ribbon.
However, if you enter "Build As... " (with a space at the end), the three dots are visible.


Which font is used for the ribbon? The font set in the VBE should not matter.

/edit:
By the way, it is due to Access and/or the ribbon that the 3 ending dots are not displayed.
I was able to reproduce the behavior with a static ribbon XML.

<customUI xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2009/07/customui"><ribbon startFromScratch="false">
<tabs><tab id="TestTab1" label="TestTab123">
<group id="TestGroup1" label="Group..." >
<button id="TestButton1" label="Button1..." size="large" onAction="=Msgbox('Button1...')" />
<button id="TestButton2" label="Button2... " size="large" onAction="=Msgbox('Button2...')" />
</group></tab></tabs></ribbon></customUI>

 

[KitaYama]

Which font is used for the ribbon?

From Our IT:

On Windows 11, the font used in the Office ribbon UI (like in Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is generally:
Segoe UI Variable

It can be changed in;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

They have doubt about the exact registry key and they have to test to give a solid answer.
They also don't recommend it because this can break Windows UI elements, including file dialogs, taskbar, etc. Not worth it unless I'm very comfortable with system tweaks and backups.

I'm waiting for the result of their tests.
But they warned me it may take a while.